Published By: Sayan Paul

Satyajit Ray: 12 lesser-known facts about the film maestro

One of the greatest filmmakers ever, Satyajit Ray brought a great revolution in Bengali as well as Indian cinema and took it to the international level.

Satyajit Ray was a genius personality who excelled in several fields of creative arts. Aside from being an extraordinary film director, he was also a screenwriter, author, music composer, lyricist, painter, calligrapher, set designer, graphic designer and film critic. Here, we have gathered some interesting yet lesser-known facts about the cinematic legend that you probably didn't know.

  1. Satyajit Ray was born in a family of writers. His grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury was a renowned Bengali writer and painter. His father Sukumar Ray was a great writer who popularized the concept of nonsense writing in Bengali literature. His aunt Lila Majumdar was also a famous writer whose stories are still popular among the young boys and girls.
  2. Ray studied about Oriental art at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan. Here, he got the opportunity to learn from the renowned painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee.
  3. Before coming into cinema, Ray worked as a junior visualizer at a British advertising agency. He also worked as a graphic designer and designed cover for many famous books.
  4. Ray got interested in filmmaking when he met the renowned French director Jean Renoir during his visit to London. In that trip, he watched almost 100 films and got hugely influenced by Vittorio De Sica's film 'Bicycle Thieves'.
  5. Along with his other contemporaries, he founded The Calcutta Film Society in 1947. He was also one of the pioneers in the new wave cinema movement in India in 1950's.
  6. It took more than three years to complete the shoot of his first film 'Pather Panchali'. The film stunned the entire world with its melancholic tone and bagged 11 international awards.
  7. He launched the career of two legendary actors Soumitra Chattapadhay and Sharmila Tagore. He and Chattapadhay collaborated together for 14 films.
  8. While he mostly worked in Bengali film industry, Ray also directed a Hindi film called 'Shatranj Ke Khiladi' in 1977.
  9. He adapted many Bengali novels into movies. His three movies 'Charulata', 'Teen Kanya' and 'Ghare Baire' were based on short stories and novels by Rabindranath Tagore.
  10. His 1962 film 'Kanchenjunga' is known as the first coloured Bengali film as well as the first Indian anthology film.
  11. As a writer, Ray is still a favourite of the Bengalis. His most popular characters include Feluda, Professor Shonku, Tarini Khuro etc.
  12. 'Sikkim', a documentary directed by Ray, remained banned for many years.
Satyajit Ray's contribution to cinema is truly unparalleled. He received numerous prestigious awards including 6 National Award for Best Director, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, 2 Silver Bears and an Oscar.